


Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

by taichara



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-25
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2018-02-18 17:25:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2356499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Andromeda fights not just to prove himself, but to keep himself alive.  </p><p>On Death Queen Island, the two things are synonymous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

**Author's Note:**

> _prompt: any, any, fall down seven times, stand up eight_

The world was splintered stone and dust like powder, liberally splashed with bloody pools and murky water and the echoes of slashing chains, of shattering ice –

It all needed to be ignored. None of it existed. The pain, the labouring of his breath, the biting cold that chewed at his limbs and gnawed at his vitals – none of this, none of this existed. There was only the anger, and the burning toxic need to –

“Idiot.”

A flash of searing cold agony came trickling down his face, his cheek laid open by the damned Swan’s black blizzard, snapped him back to reality with barely the time to block the brunt of Black Cygnus’ assault with a flurry of whistling chain. Spitting blood-flecked foam, Black Andromeda snarled at his opponent and sent the glittering ebon coils snaking towards the mocking Swan to bind and rend and crush; beneath his feet the very stones of the plateau were ground to splinters to match the dry bones of other failures.

In his head he could still hear Guilty’s contemptuous snarl.

_‘Useless. Weak and useless. I’m tired of wasting effort on you, brat.  
‘Win today or decorate the caldera with your corpse. I don’t care which it is.’_

Shrieking, he lunged past Black Cygnus, yanking suddenly back on his chains to tear the larger youth off-balance and gasping as the link-barbs savaged exposed and bleeding flesh.

He would not lose today. Let the damned Swan’s bones be scattered across the Island.

_You think I only fight at range, don’t you you stupid frostbitten savage –_

A half-shattered boulder piercing the plateau would serve as leverage; he slackened the chains, leapt high – the sinking sun was behind him; blind the damned Swan – and came down kicking with one armoured heel, corona suddenly flaring with inky venom. The force of the blow staggered Black Cygnus to one knee, and he closed quickly to strike and end it, chains coiling, rattling with the taste for blood … 

Howling mad, frost etching the battering plating of his Cloth, the Swan surged up in a black-ice tide of fury that carried them both across the hellblasted plateau in a spiderweb of tainted hoarfrost, and the Maiden found himself crushed against a rocky outcrop, gasping around the death-cold hand that gripped his throat. 

And in the Swan’s dead cold stare there was no quarter.

_I said I’m not falling to you!_

The air filled with the sound of a thousand enraged serpents.

_Never – to – you!_

Dead frost clashed with inky venom, the coronas of their cosmo pulverizing the hapless stone; Black Cygnus tightened his grip, eyes glittering, and a smirk began to play across his thin pale lips.

“I don’t even need to use real power to finish you off –*”

The words choked in his throat, the Maiden’s hands suddenly buried in his unprotected ribs, and the darkling Maiden Saint smiled against the darkness that was overtaking his vision.

_Be bitten, savage, and suffer._

He reached down deep, caustic cosmo surging in his veins, light-headed and uncaring, as a flail of barbed, fanged chain – as a knot of hissing savage vipers – engulfed the Swan in their mad coils and buried themselves fang-deep into his flesh. The howl of agony echoed across the shattered pinnacle, scattered lurking scavengers into the safety of the stones. 

Hissing with cruel joy, Black Andromeda savaged the Swan’s tendons, tore the frozen grip from his throat, and lifted a bloody hand to gouge out the bastard’s eyes for a trophy.

_: Enough. :_

The world was suddenly agony.

When he could see around the pain he found himself locked down, restrained by the sightless Black Dragon; the other held Black Cygnus in check, heedless of the Swan’s own still-bleeding wounds. Before he could protest Guilty strode into view.

The forbidding mask revealed nothing, as Guilty’s growl revealed nothing. Only a curt gesture of dismissal gave any indication of their master’s response – that, and the words that ratcheted from the mangled throat.

“You live for now, brat. If you repeat that little trick.  
“Tomorrow both of you fight the Dragons.”

With that he was gone, the witchling twins disappearing a breath behind him. Black Andromeda eyed the Swan -- who only returned the glance with a dispassionate stare as he shook off bloody frost – then shrugged, and turned to climb down from the plateau.

He was still alive.


End file.
